The Writing Hub
Essays from the desk, not the podium.
Long-form pieces on how to start a company with no money, recover from business bankruptcy, structure a co-founder equity split, and lead under pressure. Four pillar playbooks and fifteen essays from the desk, not the podium.
Pillar guides
Long-form playbooks for the questions founders actually ask.
Playbook
How to start a company with no money
Seven concrete moves from Jeremy Barker. The $5,000 truck. The patent. The paycheck job that funds the night job. What no money actually means and how to start anyway.
Playbook
How to recover from business bankruptcy
Two bankruptcies before Murphy Door. Six concrete moves to come back as a professional operator, not a wounded founder. Written by someone who has done it twice.
Playbook
Co-founder equity guide
Seven concrete moves on splits, vesting, and the exit paperwork nobody writes until it is too late. Companion to Founder Fallout, the 100-question workbook.
Playbook
How to lead under pressure
Six specific transfers from twenty active years in fire service to the boardroom. Incident command, calm under load, small crews, and the reason Jeremy Barker still runs shifts at Weber Fire.
Essays
Founder Fallout
Why I wrote Founder Fallout
The real reason I wrote Founder Fallout, told straight. Four partnerships, two ambushes, and one hundred questions I wish someone had put in front of me.
Founder Fallout
What really happens when a founder goes broke
Bankruptcy, from the inside. Two of my companies went under before I built Murphy Door. Here is what nobody tells you about losing everything and what it feels like on the other side.
Murphy Door
How Murphy Door actually started
The real origin of Murphy Door. A five-seat theater room in my basement in 2012, a cheap door I could not stand, and the idea that grew into 200,000 orders shipped.
Playbook
What I do when a business is failing (the exact sequence)
The exact 30/60/90 day playbook I run when a business is failing. Cash first, then people, then product. Two bankruptcies taught me this. Seventeen companies later, it still holds.
Founder Fallout
Who Founder Fallout is not for
Founder Fallout is not a self-help book, a startup finance book, or a shortcut. Here is the honest list of who should not buy it, and who should.
Murphy Door
Why Murphy Door costs what it costs
The honest reasons a real Murphy Door costs what it does. Materials, mechanics, warranty, install, finish, and the moment the wall opens.
Podcast
Why the podcast is called 90 Proof Wisdom
Ninety proof is a common American bottling strength once a spirit is cut from cask down for the shelf. The podcast name works the same way.
Personal
Why I still work
The honest reason I still get up at five in the morning and build. The reason is the work itself, not the money and not the trophies, and the shape of a life I want to live.
Essay
Leadership lessons from the firehouse
Twenty years on the truck taught me more about running seventeen companies than any book on leadership ever did. Here are the lessons I actually use.
Essay
What entrepreneurs get wrong about partnerships
Four partnerships, two ambushes, and the six mistakes I see almost every founder make on the way in. This is what I would tell my younger self before signing.
Essay
How entrepreneurs survive bankruptcy
I went bankrupt twice before Murphy Door. Here is what actually happens, what to do first, and what to stop believing about founders who have been where you are.
Essay
American manufacturing that actually works
Three American plants, over two hundred thousand orders shipped, and hardware built in house. Here is what it actually takes to run American manufacturing that works.
Playbook
Ten questions every entrepreneur should ask a potential co-founder
Founder Fallout is a hundred questions. If you have time for only ten, these are the ten I would use to decide whether to sign the paperwork.
Essay
Why I still run into burning buildings
I have been a firefighter and paramedic for twenty years and I am still on the truck. Here is why I keep the shifts even after seventeen companies.
Essay
The real cost of scaling a hardware company
Hardware is not SaaS with atoms. The costs, the timelines, and the failure modes are different. Here is what I have learned scaling Murphy Door across three American plants.
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